England aim to lay ICC Champions Trophy marker in West Indies ODI series
England aim to lay ICC Champions Trophy marker in West Indies ODI series
England's bid to get their 50-over form back on track for this summer's Sky LiveICC Champions Trophy begins in Antigua on Friday when Eoin Morgan leads his side out in the first of three one-day internationals against the West Indies.
The tourists will start the series as favourites despite their 2-1 loss to India over the winter and their early exit in the 2015 World Cup, where they failed to get past the group stage.
However, under Morgan they continue to play a positive brand of cricket and have clear ambitions of improving their current ODI ranking of fifth in the world. England go into the first ODI off the back of contrasting victories in their two warm-up games, racking up 379-8 over a Vice Chancellor's XI in the opener before surviving a dramatic collapse to get across the line by just two wickets in the follow-up match against a President's XIEngland's batting line-up is not at full strength due to the absence of Alex Hales, who continues to recover from a hand injury.Sam Billings appears most likely to face the new ball alongside Jason Roy on Friday even though the Kent opener failed to make significant runs in either warm-up match in St Kitts, while Jonny Bairstow top-scored with 86 on Monday.Hales, is, however likely to be in the frame for the series finale in Barbados on March 9.On the bowling front, England have summoned Tom Curran from the Lions tour of Sri Lanka to replace fast-medium bowler Jake Ball, who picked up a knee injury in the second warm-up match and is ruled out.With the surface at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound expected to be friendly for spinners, the form and effectiveness of slow bowlers Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid will again come under close scrutiny, just as in India. West Indies remain under pressure to reverse a run of poor form that could see them facing the indignity of having to qualify for the next World Cup in 2019.
The top eight teams in the International Cricket Council ODI rankings at the end of September 2017 automatically advance to the event in England.
West Indies - struggling in ninth spot three points behind Pakistan and a further two adrift of Bangladesh - have only this series, a return duel in England in September and, critically, three matches against Pakistan in the Caribbean in April to make the cut.